On the Saturday before the first clue (18th), there is a tradition (5th year) of meeting at Patrick McGovern's in St. Paul ... the Pre-Dig Gig. It's a time to get together with people who haven't seen each other since the previous year, meet new people who are interested in the Medallion Hunt, and since it's a bar - well ....

They do have great food too. There's a room decorated with vintage Carnival memorabilia, but we outgrew that two years ago. Generally we're in the upstairs bar.

Oh yeah, the purpose of the night: Either by cell phone, or laptop, the first clue is received at approximately 11:00 pm. That leaves two hours to argue about whether the Medallion is in St. Paul or Ramsey County.

Just wondering where we can purchase those medallion hunting buttons?
Can you hunt without a button and if you stumble upon the medallion, buy a button? Just wondering since the buttons are pretty cheap.

It sure is nice geocaching in January with no snow. If you want snow you should go the east coast. Sorry for being such a party pooper, but I work outside and enjoy this kind of winter._________________"The world is a dangerous place. Not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." - Albert Einstein

Two weeks to go, and it's already started. People who haven't been heard from in 50 weeks are finding their way to the CoolerCrew forum.

The following 'review' of the Giant Snow Slide is courtesy of Diggorious Rex:

GIANT SNOW SLIDE

Kids are drawn to slides like metal to magnets. The St. Paul Winter Carnival’s 2nd Annual, Giant Snow Slide, is no ordinary slide. This slide catered to kids of all ages, and my kids and I were ready to indulge. This was the highlight, the cherry on top, so to speak, for my family during the Winter Carnival. We managed to steal a decent parking spot within a half block of the Winter Park Wonder. The kids’ eyes were glued on the slide, barely noticing the bustling, snake-like ticket line, dominating the entire base of the slide, almost as if it were being guarded from an invading force.

We were dressed to the hilt in our winter armor, donning several layers of protection, from the crisp, unforgiving winter wind. We approached the end of the line, trudging through the same snow packed, carved out steps, hundreds before us had trodden, each step filling me with a blushing sensation of pride. Here we were, being Minnesotan, and as St. Paulian as it gets.

The line was saturated with different multi-colored hats, gloves, jackets, snow pants and scarves. Heads were bobbing around, straining to get a better look at this years rendition of the slide. “What improvements do you think they made this year?” I asked my children, in an attempt to spur their imagination. My oldest replied “ I’ll bet they put some kind of oil on it, so you fly down it, at like a hundred miles an hour, or so” My youngest added, “No way, it would cost fifty-hundred dollars then”.

I was grinning from one ear to the other. These feelings and thoughts were like cocoa during a chilly winter day after playing outside, they instantly flooded me with memories reminding me of what it felt like when I was their age.

The wait was eternal. We waited anxiously, rocking back and forth on our heels, rubbing our hands together in anticipation, unafraid of the challenge at hand; thus the moment of truth. All the planning, and strategy that was discussed during our agonizing wait, was thrown out the window, for here was the Giant Slide, and we stood at it’s precipice.
The slide was shaped like a giant triangular piece of white ice cream pie, consisting of six separate notched runs, glistening with pure ice, and lined with hay bales for protection. It was a mere 200 ft. descent, and 20 yards of giggling terror. A tingling chill ran its course through my spine, but I was the leader, and organizer of this expedition, I would stand firm. I quickly barked out seating arrangements, motioning to my two oldest, “You two, on this sled” and with one motion, flumped down onto my sled, with my youngest in front. All eyes were wider than a panoramic postcard of the Grand Canyon.

The wait was over, now time seemed to stand still. Angling our sleds over the edge, images of pure ecstasy danced around inside my brain. Inside our fat and warm winter gloves, knuckles were pure white, gripping onto the sled’s rope, as if it was the ropes fault, for what we were about to encounter. The cacophony of background noise disappeared. The four of us made eye contact, and launched our sleds together in unison.

We sped down the snow-slicked slide, screeching and yelling “Ahhhhhhh” and “Weeeee” As our sleds shaved yet another layer off of the run, a frosty mist flew up and glazed our faces. Our sleds challenged us to try and stay within them, as we bounced around like bobbers on the ripples of water.

In an instant, it was over. We had overcome this monster slide, and agreed on its glory and majesty. It was everything we had hoped for and more. Fully recovered from this awesome ride, I weakly muttered, without looking up, “Well, should we go down again?” but no one heard me, as they were already running back to the end of line.

Last edited by King Boreas on Sat Jan 04, 2003 10:27 pm; edited 1 time in total

In 1998 at the 1st Annual CoolerCrew Re-Hash Bash, a certain daily newspaper in St. Paul showed up offering trinkets, t-shirts and a website. They liked 'our little community'. Over the next four years many people contributed info, stories, photos, etc. to create a website that had everything you would want to know about the Medallion Hunt.

Knight-Ridder decided that all their websites MUST be identical. The crappy forum they substituted is unusable. They didn't even include us. The worst thing they did was cancel the support of the website, without telling ANYONE, even the VOLUNTEER webmaster, in advance. Luckily, he had everything saved.

Greg Sax is a Minnesota native, whose work has been in Milwaukee and now California. All his files have been released to a couple locals, ares and Marley King, and they have re-created this very valuable resource:

People are showing up, and checking in. It's to your benefit to get registered say hi. Mention that Ian suggested you check out the site, you're interested in the Medallion Hunt, and that you are a geocacher. When you register, you will need to reply to an e-mail to get full posting privileges.

I can't tell you what the benefit is, but if you register and post, you'll get a nice surprise in a couple weeks.

For further insights, information, and discussion of the hunt, join the treasure hunting club at [url]clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/theallisonwonderland[/url].
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Whenever a snow emergency is declared, follow the snowplows around and completely dig out all the cars they plow in.
As a big storm is about to hit, stand on your front steps with your back to the yard. Toss your car keys over your shoulder. Go back inside and then go find them the next day.
Read up on Occam's Razor (All else being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the correct one).
Do every word jumble, crossword puzzle, and search-a-word you can get your hands on.
Make a list of all the things you can do with $10,000.
Turn off the heat in your home for 16 hours a day.
Only sleep three hours a night.
Move all the snow from your back yard to your front yard.
Spend all night on the Internet with total strangers discussing who killed JFK.
Commit the Cooler Crew and Treasure Hunter's Guide Websites to memory.
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This link has info showing where it was hidden, how it was hidden, and further links with each year's clues, and the meanings behind them. This is very informative to get an idea of how certain ares in parks are referenced or described.